The award-winning David Edgar is arguably one of the greatest living playwrights, recently receiving a Writers' Guild of GB award for his Outstanding Contribution to British playwriting. He has had more than sixty of his original plays, adaptations and translations performed around the world, including for the Royal Shakespeare Company: Destiny, The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Maydays, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Pentecost, The Prisoner's Dilemma, Written On The Heart and A Christmas Carol, and for the National Theatre: Albert Speer and The Shape of the Table.

This is a collection of some of Edgar’s plays, broadcast on BBC Radio:

Michelle is a TV star known throughout the world.  When she agrees to appear in a London stage production of 'The Seagull', one of her fans, Tripper, decides this is the opportunity to make his heroine aware of his existence...

Michelle .... Samantha Bond

Alex .... Kenneth Cranham

Tripper .... Mark Kilmurray

Michael / Massinger .... Ed Bishop

Celia Salmon .... Hedli Niklaus

John / Assassin .... David Vann

Tripper's Mother .... Tina Gray

Sue .... Georgia Greeph

Nick Card .... John Dixon

McKinley / Francois .... Simon Carter

Speaking Clock .... Geoff Serle

Konstantin .... Andy Hockley

Dick Hennessy .... Alan Devereux

Receptionist .... Kimberley Hope

Director / Gerry .... Rob Swinton

Witten by David Edgar

Directed by Philip Martin

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1991

An epic play that ranges across continents and decades to explore how young activists who came of age in the 1960s subsequently made the leap from the far left to the die-hard right. 

Martin Glass ..... Mark Quartley

Jeremy Crowther ..... Geoffrey Streatfeild

Amanda ..... Ellie Kendrick

James Grain ..... Jonathan Forbes

Phil Mandrell ..... Colin Ryan

Phyllis Weiner/Mrs Glass ...... Jane Slavin

Tanya ..... Ria Marshall

Judy ..... Ruth Everett

Newsreader ..... Roger Ringrose

Other parts played by David Hounslow and Lloyd Thomas

Witten by David Edgar

Directed by Toby Swift

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2023

Counsellor Helena Kerr, Chair of the Social Services Committee on Birmingham City's Council, discovers the body of her young gay clerk, Ben Logan, lying in a council house corridor bludgeoned to death. Helena has immediate suspicions about the identity of the murderer. She suspects her main political opponent, Councillor John Malcolm, and sets out to prove it.

Helena ..... Celia Imrie

Michael ..... Nathaniel Parker

Nina ..... Frances Barber

John ..... Nicholas Woodeson

Rosemary ..... Victoria Wicks

Pearce ..... John Rowe

Dave ..... Kim Wall

Vera ..... Jillie Meers

Max ..... Roger Walker

Mary ..... Beverley Hills

Stringer ..... Richenda Carey

Rajinder ..... Nitin Chandra Ganatra

Story by Eve Brook

Dramatised posthumously by David Edgar (Eve Brook's husband)

Directed by Jonquil Panting

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2000

David Edgar's brilliant play about a National Front-like political party, with an all-star cast.  The play analyses how and why the far-right National Front was becoming a genuine political force in the late 1970s. Edgar portrays the intersection of politics with human lives.

Dennis Turner ..... Colin Jeavons

Richard Cleaver ..... Iain Cuthbertson

Major Lewis Rolfe ..... Nigel Hawthorne

Frank Kershaw ..... Peter Jeffrey

David Maxwell ..... Joseph Blatchley

Paul McShane ..... Paul Copley

Gurjeet Singh Khera ..... Saeed Jaffrey

Tony Perrins ..... David Beames

Peter Crosby ..... David Robb

Bob Clifton ..... John Price

Sandy Clifton ..... Gabrielle Lloyd

Colonel Chandler ..... Frederick Treves

Written by David Edgar

Directed by Mike Newell

First broadcast on BBC1 in January 1978

David Edgar made his performing debut in this solo show exploring the autobiographical background to his landmark theatre play, Maydays. The 70-year-old is confronted by his young self, 50 years after his political outlook was defined by the tumultuous events of 1968. Do they share the same beliefs? If not, is it the world that’s changed, or him? Why did his generation vote Brexit? Has he sold in or sold out?

David ..... David Edgar

Younger David ..... Paul Heath

Witten by David Edgar

Directed by Jonquil Panting

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2019